Does this real-time protection strategy seem OK? Anyone else doing it?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’m still evaluating avast real-time file system protection. I’m a stickler for performance, so one of my goals is to keep the number of real-time file accesses on my hard drive by avast to a minimum.

One strategy for doing this is to check files when created or modified, i.e. written, and not when read or executed. Since virus definition files will always lag behind viruses, a file with a virus may have been created before the definition to detect it was released. Thus, with this strategy, I would also have to do a weekly scan to pick up these kinds of viruses.

Does anyone see a problem with this kind of strategy? Does anyone else here use something similar? Are there any tricks or techniques you have picked up to get avast to do this?

I’m still playing around with all the options and learning, so I’m open to opinions.

Thanks!

-Dave

2

It seems to me that by doing what you state above, you are just asking for an infection of malware sooner or later.

3
Since virus definition files will always lag behind viruses
Not always, there is Generic/heuristick behavior detection that can detect new virus without any definition. And this is where avast 5 is better then 4.8
4

That is correct.

I would leave the real-time file system protection set at default as it is quite good.

5

Personally I would have left avast at its default settings for a while and see how it impacts on your system performance. On any half decent system avast shouldn’t impact on your system overall performance with the resident on-access scanners.

I see negligible issues in my normal use of the system, though it largely depends on what you are using it for.

6

Good, I’m glad to know that! Thanks!

-Dave

7

Yeah, I think use determines a lot. When I’m not really doing anything, just browsing or whatever, it’s fine. But when I have a large batch of photos and run a CRC on them, I noticed it is much, much slower scanning each photo when I read it.

I think user behavior is one of the biggest factors. I use NoScript with Firefox, I don’t accept any attachments via email (text only), and I don’t download random software from the net. I think those three things alone protect me from 99% of what’s out there. Because of that, I don’t really want to waste time scanning everything over and over.

It sounds like my behavior and needs are a little different from others here, but I do appreciate the input. I do have an Acronis backup image of my system drive, so I guess I don’t see a virus or malware as the worst thing in the world, although of course I’d rather not get one.

Thanks again for all the great input! This looks like a pretty nice user group here. :slight_smile:

-Dave

8

You’re welcome.